m 


LINCOLN  ROOM 


UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 
LIBRARY 


MEMORIAL 

the  Class  of  1901 

founded  by 

HARLAN  HOYT  HORNER 

and 
HENRIETTA  CALHOUN  HORNER 


The  Lincoln 
Centennial  Medal 


Presenting  the  medal  of  Abraham  Lincoln  by 

Jules  Edouard  Rome 

Together  with  papers  on 

The  Medal  :  Its  Origin  and  Symbolism  by 

George  N.  Olcott 

and 
The  Lincoln  Centennial  Commemoration  by 

Richard  Lloyd  Jones 

and 
Certain  Characteristic  Utterances  of 

Abraham  Lincoln 


G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons 

New  York  and  London 

tTbe  fmicfcerbocher  press 

1908 


COPYRIGHT,  1908 

BY 
ROBERT  HEWITT 


fmfcfterbocfter  press,  Hew  Bocft 


' 

£ki37 


Uo 

Brcber  A.  f)untfn0ton 

presftent  of  tbe  Bmerican  •fflumismatic  Society 


Publishers'  Note 

THE  production  by  Jules  Edouard 
Roine*  of  Paris,  in  connection  with  the 
centennial  of  the  birth  of  Abraham 
Lincoln,  of  a  medal  of  the  head  of  the 
martyred  President,  has  suggested  the 
preparation  of  this  volume. 

The  volume  contains,  in  addition  to 
the  medal  itself,  which  is  described 
as  the  most  beautiful  representation  of 
Lincoln's  features  that  has  as  yet  been 
made,  certain  characteristic  writings 
of  Lincoln;  and  to  these  have  been 
added  a  scholarly  essay  on  the  origin 
and  symbolism  of  the  medal  by  Pro- 
fessor George  N.  Olcott  of  Columbia 
University,  and  a  paper  by  Richard 


publfsbers'  IRote 


Lloyd  Jones,  describing  the  purpose 
and  the  character  of  the  centennial 
commemoration.  Monsieur  Koine",  the 
designer  of  the  medal,  has  long  been 
recognized  by  the  authorities  on  the 
subject  as  one  of  the  great  medallists 
of  the  world.  Before  giving  his  at- 
tention to  medallic  art,  he  had  secured 
fame  as  a  sculptor. 

Koine"  was  born  in  the  Department 
of  the  Loire  in  1858,  and  while  still  a 
young  man,  he  became  a  student  of 
Leopold  Morice  of  Paris.  He  secured 
a  world-wide  reputation  through  the 
exquisite  productions  in  bas-relief  de- 
signed in  1900  for  the  Paris  Exposition 
of  that  year.  He  received  later  from 
the  French  Government  a  gold  medal 
in  recognition  of  the  success  of  the 
bas-relief  of  the  Aurora  of  the  Twentieth 
Century.  The  original  of  this  work 


publtsbers'  IRote 


is  in  the  Luxembourg  Museum  in  Paris, 
and  a  bas-relief  replica  has  been  secured 
for  the  gold  room  of  the  Metropoli- 
tan Museum  in  New  York;  a  second 
replica  has  been  placed  in  the  Imperial 
Museum  at  Berlin. 

Another  charming  creation  of  the  art- 
ist's is  the  representation  on  a  christen- 
ing medal  of  the  birth  of  a  child.  The 
Goddess  of  Life  is  shown  floating  from 
the  clouds,  dropping  the  infant  into  the 
cradle,  and  then  drifting  away  into 
space. 

Monsieur  Roin6  served  in  the  Paris 
Exposition  of  1900  as  a  member  of  the 
Jury  on  Art. 

The  art  critics  who  have  examined 
the  Lincoln  medal  are  at  one  in  the 
opinion  that  it  must  remain  the  au- 
thoritative medallic  representation  of 
the  great  American. 


viii  publtebers'  IRote 

The  selections  made  from  Lincoln's 
own  utterances  are  those  which  are, 
on  one  ground  or  another,  most  repre- 
sentative of  the  character  and  high 
ideals  of  the  man  and  of  the  methods 
of  action  of  the  great  leader. 

The  copies  of  the  medal  produced 
for  this  volume  have  been  struck  under 
the  instructions  of  Mr.  Robert  Hewitt, 
the  well-known  collector  of  medallic- 
Lincolniana,  who  is  the  owner  of  the 
copyright. 


Contents 

PAGE 

THE  MEDAL:  ITS  ORIGIN  AND  SYMBOLISM       3 
By  GEORGE  N.  OLCOTT 

THE  LINCOLN  CENTENARY  1809-1909      .     15 
By  RICHARD  LLOYD  JONES 

FAREWELL    ADDRESS    AT    SPRINGFIELD, 

ILLINOIS,  FEBRUARY  n,  1861  .     43 

EMANCIPATION  PROCLAMATION,  SEPTEM- 
BER 22,  1862  .  .  .  -45 

LETTER  TO  HORACE  GREELEY  ON  THE 
POLICY  OF  THE  ADMINISTRATION, 
AUGUST  22,  1862  .  .  .  -53 

LETTER  TO  GENERAL  J.  HOOKER  ON  HIS 
APPOINTMENT  TO  THE  COMMAND  OF 
THE  ARMY  OF  THE  POTOMAC  ,  JANUARY 
26,  1863  .  .  57 

ADDRESS  AT  GETTYSBURG,  NOVEMBER  19, 

1863 60 


x  Contents 

PAGE 

LETTER  TO  MRS.  BIXBY  ON  THE  DEATH 
OF  HER  FIVE  SONS  IN  BATTLE, 
NOVEMBER  21,  1864  .  .  -63 

SECOND  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS,  MARCH  4, 

1865 65 


The  Medal:  Its  Origin 
and  Symbolism 


The  Medal:  Its  Origin 
and  Symbolism 

By  George  N.  Olcott 

As  coined  money  was  in  its  origin 
an  outgrowth  of  the  personal  seal, 
so  the  medal  was  suggested  by  the 
coin,  from  which  it  takes  its  form  and 
technique.  Yet  the  medal,  as  we 
know  it  to-day,  is  quite  a  recent  in- 
vention; for  that  which  specifically 
distinguishes  it  from  the  coin  lies  in  the 
fact  that,  while  the  coin  is  intended 
to  serve  as  a  legal  medium  of  exchange, 
the  medal  is  purely  commemorative. 
Every  detail  of  medallic  type  or  in- 

3 


4    Ube  :flDetml :  ©rfgin  ant)  Symbolism 

scription  may  be,  and  indeed  often  is, 
found  on  actual  coins,  and  this  ex- 
plains why  the  real  medal  is  of  modern 
origin.  We  often  hear  of  cabinets  of 
Greek  and  Roman  "  medals  ";  the  word 
is  wrongly  applied — for  the  ancients 
had  no  medals.  Such  application  is, 
however,  not  wholly  without  reason, 
when  we  consider  that  Greek  and 
Roman  coins,  and  particularly  those 
of  imperial  Rome,  often  had  a  truly 
medallic  character.  Though  intended 
for  general  circulation  as  money,  they 
not  infrequently,  under  forms  of  the 
highest  art,  of  the  deepest  poetic  feel- 
ing, of  the  profoundest  symbolism,  of 
the  most  realistic  interpretation  of  na- 
ture's manifestations  or  of  man's  hand- 
iwork, presented  the  commemorative  ele- 
ment which  is  the  soul  of  the  medal. 
Great  historical  events  of  battle  and 


Ube  /IDefcal:  ©rfgfn  ant)  Symbolism    5 

conquest,  great  civic  celebrations,  re- 
ligious and  athletic,  the  dedication  of 
public  monuments  of  beauty,  venera- 
tion and  utility,  all  found  expression 
on  the  common  coins  that  passed 
from  hand  to  hand  in  the  ancient 
world.  It  is  true,  we  have  among  the 
Greeks  as  among  the  Romans  "medal- 
lions," too  large  for  use  as  simple  money 
and  obviously  not  designed  for  com- 
mon use,  but  rather  as  gifts  to  be  kept 
in  proud  remembrance  of  personal 
achievements  or  of  services  rendered 
to  the  state  or  to  the  sovereign;  but, 
strangely  enough,  these  "medallions" 
never  have  the  commemorative  char- 
acter of  the  medal;  they  bear  no  refer- 
ence to  the  persons  for  whom  they 
may  have  been  intended  as  souvenirs. 
In  strong  contrast  with  the  really  med- 
allic  coins,  they  have,  with  the  portrait 


6    Ube  /IDefcal :  ©rigfn  an&  Symbolism 

and  titles  of  the  reigning  emperor,  only 
mythical  and  symbolic  subjects. 

The  medal,  properly  so  called,  grew 
out  of  the  humanistic  movement  of 
the  sixteenth  century  in  Italy— that 
wonderful  tide  of  intellectual  and  artis- 
tic activity,  of  passionate  longing  for 
classical  beauty,  that  welled  up  from 
the  dead  sea  of  medievalism  and, 
overflowing  the  arid  desert  of  darkest 
Europe,  fertilized  and  revivified  the 
ground  in  which,  as  by  magic,  took 
root  the  seeds  of  our  modern  civiliza- 
tion. This  civilization  we  are  ready  in 
our  pride  to  believe  wholly  our  own, 
forgetting  that  in  all  but  its  purely 
utilitarian  aspects  it  is  but  a  continua- 
tion of  that  of  our  teachers,  the  Greeks 
and  the  Romans.  Look  where  we 
may,  in  all  our  higher  aspirations 
as  reflected  in  painting  and  sculpture, 


Ube  flDefcal :  ©riQin  ant>  Symbolism    7 

in  poetry  and  philosophy,  we  detect 
the  influence  of  "the  beauty  that  was 
Greece  and  the  glory  that  was 
Rome." 

Poetry  and  symbolism  underlie  all 
art.  Taking  its  inspiration  from  these 
essential  attributes  of  the  classic  genius, 
the  medal  teaches  not  so  much  by 
what  it  shows  as  by  what  it  suggests. 
Does  it  present  us  the  portrait  of  a 
hero  ?  When  the  Greeks  first  attempted 
portraiture,  in  the  time  of  Alexander 
the  Great,  they  were  still  under  the  in- 
fluence of  sculpturesque  ideals  of  divin- 
ity conceived  under  the  most  perfect 
human  form,  and  their  first  portraits 
sought  to  give  to  the  lineaments  of  their 
living  heroes  the  idealized  types  as 
transmitted  through  the  ages.  Pure 
realism  was  an  afterthought,  and  the 
Romans  developed  it  to  such  an  extent 


8    Ube  /IDefcal :  ©rfgfn  ant>  Symbolism 

as  to  bring  into  relief  even  the  personal 
defects  of  the  subject.  Our  modern 
medallist  has  found  the  middle  ground. 
The  artistic  ideal  is  here,  with  no 
sacrifice  of  the  real;  and  in  the  ascetic 
features,  in  the  firm,  strong  mouth, 
in  the  eye  always  ready  to  twinkle 
with  humor,  in  the  high,  open  forehead, 
of  Abraham  Lincoln,  one  sees  the 
whole  noble  nature  of  one  who  loved 
his  fellowmen,  of  one  whom  all  the 
world  recognizes  as  the  highest  type  of 
human  justice  and  kindness. 

And  modern  art  still  lives  in  the 
tradition  of  the  days  when  the  Olym- 
pian gods  ruled  the  world,  when 
nymphs  and  graces,  fauns  and  satyrs 
made  the  woods  and  streams  echo  with 
the  choral  dance,  when  every  phase 
of  nature  turned  man's  thoughts  to  his 
Creator.  Each  plant,  each  tree,  each 


flDetml  :  ©rtoin  ant)  Symbolism   9 


living  thing  symbolized  in  its  special 
way  some  aspect  of  the  divine  power. 

The  broad  groves  of  the  century-old 
oaks  of  his  native  land  remind  the 
Greek  of  eternity,  of  the  deity  as 
manifested  in  nature;  and  the  oak  be- 
came the  symbol  of  Zeus.  The  Rom- 
ans, ever  practical  in  their  application 
of  Grecian  customs  to  their  own  needs, 
gave  the  oak  crown  to  him  who  saved 
the  lives  of  citizens.  Thus  we  see  the 
oak  wreath  with  the  dedication  "The 
Roman  Senate  and  People  to  Augustus 
Caesar  for  saving  the  lives  of  citizens, 

(S.P.Q.R.     C^ESARI     AUGUSTO     OB     GIVES 

SERVATOS")  on  many  coins  of  that 
wise  ruler,  who  almost  alone,  after  a 
century  of  civil  wars,  evolved  order 
out  of  chaos,  and  brought  peace  to 
the  ancient  world. 

The  palm,  so  elastic  that,   though 


io  Ube  flDefcal :  ©rigin  anfc  Symbolism 

bent  to  the  earth,  it  will  rise  again  and 
recover  its  erect  position,  when  the 
power  that  pressed  it  down  is  removed, 
was  in  both  pagan  and  Christian  times, 
and  still  remains,  the  emblem  of  vic- 
tory for  warrior  or  martyr,  and  the 
symbol,  also,  of  peace.  Palm  branches 
or  leaves  were  borne  at  the  entry  of 
kings  into  Jerusalem,  and  they  were 
strewn  before  Christ  as  He  rode  into 
that  city.  In  Christian  worship,  the 
palm  has  for  centuries  held  a  place;  it 
was  used  in  the  ritual  of  Osiris  in 
Egypt;  and  it  was  carried  in  the 
triumphal  processions  of  ancient  Rome. 
What  better  symbolism  could  be 
found  for  the  medal  of  our  great  Liber- 
ator and  martyred  President  than  a 
wreath  combined  of  palm  and  oak? 
The  palm  symbolizes  victory,  not  merely 
the  victory  that  restored  to  a  great 


Ube  flDefcal :  ©rtgin  ant)  Symbolism  n 

nation  harmony  and  prosperity,  and  to 
countless  slaves  personal  liberty,  but 
the  victory  over  his  own  humble 
circumstances  and  lack  of  opportunity, 
the  victory  won  through  dauntless 
courage  and  firmness  of  conviction. 
This  is  a  conquest  that  must  for  all 
time  redound  to  his  glory,  and  is  one 
which,  without  any  act  of  Congress,  has 
served  to  secure  a  place  for  him  in  the 
hearts  of  all  Americans  as  the  second 
Father  of  his  country.  The  branch  of 
oak  stands  for  peace,  recalling  that  a 
great  leader,  another  and  a  far  greater 
Augustus,  directed  the  destinies  of  his 
country  through  the  darkness  of  Civil 
War,  and  brought  order  out  of  chaos 
for  the  great  Republic  of  the  West, 
imperial  in  power,  democratic  in  spirit, 
and  refounded  in  the  ideals  of  Abraham 
Lincoln. 


The   Lincoln    Centenary 
1809-1909 


The   Lincoln    Centenary 
1809-1909 

By  Richard  Lloyd  Jones 

MAN  measures  the  development  of 
history  by  large  units.  The  centennial 
of  any  great  event  is  always  a  day  of 
reckoning, — a  pivot  point  on  which  to 
swing  the  transit  and  gauge  the  per- 
spective of  time.  Most  fittingly  has 
America  commemorated  her  great 
achievements  and  the  triumphs  of  her 
centuries.  In  1893,  on  the  banks  of 
one  of  our  great  inland  seas,  we  ex- 
hibited to  the  world,  in  a  magnificence 
never,  in  its  way,  surpassed,  one  result 
15 


1 6         Ube  OLincoln  Centenary 

of  the  great  courage  of  Christopher 
Columbus,  who  alone  faced  the  un- 
belief of  the  world  and  gave  to  the 
oppressed  of  Europe  a  hemisphere 
unfettered  and  free.  On  the  fourth 
day  of  July,  in  1776,  a  bell  rang 
out  to  all  mankind  the  tidings  that 
in  the  little  city  of  Philadelphia  a 
group  of  men  had  inaugurated  a  gov- 
ernment that  should  safeguard  the  lib- 
erties of  men.  One  hundred  years 
later,  in  the  same  city,  grown  big  and 
powerful,  the  story  of  that  great  tri- 
umph was  recalled  for  a  grateful  people. 
In  1889,  the  President  of  the  United 
States  issued  a  message  to  the  people, 
calling  upon  them  to  recognize  ap- 
propriately the  centennial  of  the  in- 
auguration of  the  first  President  of  our 
country.  In  commemoration  of  this 
wonderful  century  of  history,  there 


TTbe  ^Lincoln  Centenary         17 

was  set  up  in  New  York  City — where 
was  taken  the  oath  of  office  of  the 
first  President  of  the  United  States 
— a  noble  memorial  arch  of  lofty  pro- 
portions bearing  the  name  of  the  im- 
mortal Washington.  Five  years  ago, 
we  were  busy  building  a  great  array 
of  plaster  palaces,  in  and  around 
which,  with  much  display  of  bunt- 
ing, illumination,  martial  music,  and 
oratory,  we  exhibited  the  vindica- 
tion of  Napoleon's  words,  when  he 
signed  the  Louisiana  Purchase  Treaty 
of  Thomas  Jefferson:  "I  part  with  an 
empire."  And  a  year  following  this, 
in  a  similar  though  more  modest 
fashion,  we  gloried  in  the  great  empire 
that  has  been  built  in  one  hundred 
years  on  the  vast  wilderness  over  which 
Lewis  and  Clark  led  their  heroic  ex- 
pedition to  the  land  where  rolls  the 


1 8          Ube  Xincoln  Centenary 

Oregon,  and  there  dipped  the  world's 
youngest  flag  into  the  Occidental  seas. 

These  were  indeed  great  centuries. 
The  story  of  each  great  achievement 
and  the  service  rendered  by  it  to  the 
betterment  of  the  world  constitute 
a  contribution  to  history  so  indelible 
that  no  celebration  can  embellish  them, 
though  every  such  reckoning  adds  a 
material  inspiration  to  the  minds  of 
men.  Great  as  is  the  inspiration  grow- 
ing out  of  great  events,  the  noblest 
inspiration  will  always  centre  in  the 
stories  of  those  stalwart  souls  who 
formulate  the  world's  great  advances. 

Out  from  the  heritage  of  time  there 
stands  no  figure  at  once  more  noble, 
simple,  and  majestic  than  Abraham 
Lincoln,  the  great  democrat.  Like 
Columbus  and  Washington,  he  looms 
higher  and  greater  in  the  perspective 


OUncoln  Centenary          19 


of  each  succeeding  generation.  He  was 
the  gentlest  of  all  great  souls.  So 
benignant  was  his  life  that  the  Ameri- 
can people,  out  of  the  deepest  sense  of 
affection  and  gratitude,  have  planned 
to  celebrate  the  centennial  of  his  birth 
with  the  same  reverential  enthusiasm 
and  patriotism  they  will  show  more 
than  half  a  hundred  years  from  now, 
when  they  will  celebrate  the  centenary 
of  the  Emancipation  Proclamation  and 
the  Gettysburg  address. 

Recognizing  the  patriotic  signifi- 
cance of  the  twelfth  day  of  February, 
1909,  and  desiring  to  commemorate 
the  occasion  fittingly,  a  group  of  Amer- 
ican citizens  was  organized  three  years 
back  under  the  title  of  the  Lincoln 
Farm  Association,  with  the  purpose  of 
securing  for  the  nation  the  original 
Lincoln  farm  in  Kentucky,  and  with 


20          ZTbe  ^Lincoln  Centenary 

the  farm  the  rude  cabin  in  which 
Abraham  Lincoln  was  born.  With  the 
support  of  many  thousands  of  patriotic 
Americans,  this  plan  has  now  been 
brought  to  fruition,  and  on  the  looth 
anniversary  of  Lincoln's  birth,  his 
humble  birthplace  will  be  made  a 
national  shrine  and  dedicated  to  the 
American  people  as  the  abiding  symbol 
of  the  opportunity  with  which  democ- 
racy endows  its  men.  Here  on  this 
"little  farm  that  raised  a  man,"  as 
Mark  Twain  has  happily  described  it, 
the  veterans  of  two  great  armies  and 
their  sons  and  daughters  unite  in 
commemorating  the  birth  of  the  great 
war  president,  who  by  blood  and 
sympathy  belonged  to  both  North 
and  South,  and  who,  never  recognizing 
any  severance  of  our  national  unity, 
with  fortitude  and  patience  reunited 


Ube  ^Lincoln  Centenary          21 

our  people  and  cemented  in  love  the 
fragments  of  a  distracted  nation.  Here, 
his  people  plan  to  take  into  their  charge 
his  first  humble  home,  and  to  guard  it 
by  a  lofty  pillar,  silent  sentinel  of  a 
national  shrine,  noble  memorial  to  a 
real  nobleman.  The  centennial  cele- 
bration of  the  birth  of  Abraham  Lin- 
coln centres  properly  about  the  place 
of  his  birth,  and  it  is  there  that  the 
national  ceremonies  will  be  held,  but 
the  dedication  of  the  Lincoln  farm  will 
be  but  one  of  the  many  commemora- 
tive ceremonies  that  are  to  be  held  all 
over  the  land. 

A  monument  of  Lincoln  is  to  be 
erected  by  the  State  of  Kentucky  in 
the  Court  House  Square  of  Hodgens- 
ville,  Lincoln's  native  town.  The  State 
of  Kentucky  is  also  planning  to  build 
a  boulevard  or  broad  roadway  to  be 


22          Ube  Xtncoln  Centenary 

known  as  the  Lincoln  Pike,  which  will 
connect  the  Lincoln  farm  with  the 
city  of  Louisville. 

There  is  also  a  plan  (initiated  in 
Washington)  for  the  building  of  a 
great  Lincoln  Road,  running  from  the 
Capitol  building  at  Washington  to 
Gettysburg,  and  shaded  with  great 
trees.  It  is  hoped  that  the  road  will, 
in  the  course  of  time,  be  enriched  by 
various  states  and  societies  with  ap- 
propriate monuments  and  fountains. 
A  further  suggestion  has  been  made  of 
continuing  this  Lincoln  Road  from 
Gettysburg  across  the  Continent  to  the 
Bay  of  San  Francisco.  This  would 
be  a  twentieth-century  Appian  Way, 
magnified  in  proportions  to  conform 
to  the  greatness  of  the  man  it  would 
commemorate. 

The  city   of  Chicago  is  planning  a 


Xtncoln  Centenary          23 


million-dollar  building  with  a  great 
central  auditorium  to  bear  the  name 
of  Lincoln.  The  abiding  value  of  this 
memorial  will  correspond  to  the  char- 
acter of  the  citizens  who  are  entrusted 
with  its  administration.  Let  us  hope 
they  will  be  wisely  chosen  and  worthy 
of  this  great  civic  trust.  Excepting 
the  birthplace  itself,  which  President 
Roosevelt  will  dedicate  to  the  Nation, 
the  most  memorable  event  will  be  the 
consecration  of  the  grave  of  Abraham 
Lincoln's  mother,  for  the  decoration 
and  preservation  of  which  the  State 
of  Indiana  has  appropriated  ten  thou- 
sand dollars. 

Though  New  York  City  will  observe 
the  centennial  with  a  most  elaborate 
programme  arranged  by  a  special  com- 
mittee of  one  hundred  appointed  by 
Mayor  McClellan,  and  other  cities  are 


24          Ube  ^Lincoln  Centenary 

making  similar  pretentious  plans,  no 
city  will  have  a  more  significant  or 
inspiring  celebration  than  Springfield, 
Illinois,  which. was  Mr.  Lincoln's  home. 

The  Congress  of  the  United  States 
will  appropriate  from  three  to  five 
millions  of  dollars  for  the  great  and 
much-needed  National  Lincoln  Mu- 
seum, to  be  built  in  the  city  of  Wash- 
ington, which  will  house  the  great 
Lincoln  collections,  such  as  the  Oldroyd 
and  others  of  its  kind,  that  should  be 
the  Nation's  possession  and  carefully 
cared  for. 

These  are  great  instances  of  Ameri- 
ca's deep  appreciation  of  a  national 
hero,  but  the  full  significance  of  this 
centennial  will  perhaps  be  better  real- 
ized by  considering  the  sentiments  that 
animate  thousands  of  small  Lincoln 
centennial  societies  and  associations 


Ube  ^Lincoln  Centenary          25 

already  established  in  village  communi- 
ties from  the  Lakes  to  the  Gulf  and 
from  sea  to  sea.  It  is  not  an  exposition 
of  trade  and  industry,  all  fenced  in,  to 
tell  the  story  of  the  acquisition  of 
territory;  it  is  not  a  burst  of  fireworks 
to  emphasize  a  people's  pride  in  a 
great  nation's  birth;  it  is  not  even  the 
glorification,  after  four  hundred  years, 
of  the  discovery  of  half  the  world. 
It  is  more.  It  is  the  salutation  across 
the  century  to  the  coming  of  a  Man. 
It  is  the  people's  unostentatious  heart- 
tribute  to  the  rude  little  cabin  house 
that  out  on  Kentucky's  frontier  laid 
claim  to  the  affections  of  coming 
generations  as  the  cradle  of  that  rough- 
hewn  pioneer  lad  whose  life  taught  the 
world  that  he  who  fights  for  the  liber- 
ties of  men  is  greater  than  he  who  tries 
to  conquer  them. 


26          Ube  ^Lincoln  Centenary 

This  man,  bruised  in  the  hard  strug- 
gles of  his  life,  had  a  heart  that 
throbbed  with  sympathy  for  those  who 
themselves  bore  the  scars  of  struggle 
and  difficulty;  and  into  his  soul  there 
flooded  the  warmth  and  light  of  a  gen- 
tle, genial  humor.  So  easily  did  he 
penetrate  the  narrowness  of  prejudice 
and  ignorance  with  this  artful  weapon, 
that  Emerson  has  said  of  him: 

It  is  certain  that  the  good  things  of  Lin- 
coln were  first  so  disguised  as  pleasantries 
that  they  had  no  reputation  but  as  jests, 
and  only  later,  by  the  very  acceptance  and 
adoption  they  found  in  the  mouths  of  the 
millions,  turned  out  to  be  the  wisdom  of  the 
hour.  I  am  sure  if  this  man  had  lived  in  a 
period  of  less  facility  of  printing,  he  would 
have  become  mythical  in  a  very  few  years, 
like  ^Esop  or  Pilpay  or  one  of  the  seven 
wise  masters,  by  his  fables  and  his  proverbs. 

His  great  humor  was,  however,  only 


Xincoln  Centenary         27 


the  counterpart,  the  balance  side,  of 
that  great  soul  that  suffered  with  sur- 
prising tenderness  for  the  sorrows  of 
men.  Lamon,  in  his  intimate  story  of 
Lincoln  says:  "  With  the  earliest  dawn 
of  reason,  he  began  to  suffer  and  en- 
dure," and  Mr.  F.  B.  Carpenter,  the 
artist,  whose  portrait  of  Lincoln  the 
President  himself  declared  to  be  an 
absolutely  perfect  likeness,  dwells  upon 
the  sadness  written  upon  Lincoln's 
face.  It  was  Mr.  Carpenter,  it  will 
be  remembered,  who  spent  six  months 
in  the  White  House  with  the  President, 
painting  that  picture,  so  impressive 
itself  and  historically  so  precious,  The 
Emancipation  Proclamation;  and  who 
wrote  The  Inner  Life  of  Abraham  Lin- 
coln, a  work  that  throws  a  bright  light 
upon  the  character  of  the  subject  of  it. 
In  the  book  referred  to,  the  author 


28          TTbe  Xincoln  Centenary 

says,  speaking  of  Lincoln's  expression: 
"  His  was  the  saddest  face  I  ever  knew. 
There  were  times  when  I  could  not 
look  upon  it  without  shedding  tears. " 

When,  as  a  child,  led  by  his  mother's 
hand,  he  visited  for  the  last  time  his 
little  sister's  grave,  he  took  with  him 
across  the  swollen  Ohio  into  the  wilder- 
ness of  Indiana  a  sense  of  life's  stern 
sorrows  that  made  him  as  strong  as  it 
made  him  lonely. 

To  his  early  and  most  timely  friend, 
Joshua  F.  Speed,  he  entrusted,  years 
later,  the  simple  story  of  his  mother's 
death.  She  called  him  to  her  side, 
laid  her  hand  on  him,  and  said:  "  I  am 
going  away  from  here,  Abe,  and  shall 
not  return.  I  know  that  you  will  be 
a  good  boy ;  that  you  will  be  kind  to 
Sarah  and  to  your  father.  I  want  you 
to  live  as  I  have  taught  you,  and  to 


^Lincoln  Centenary         29 


love  your  Heavenly  Father."  Then 
he  saw  his  father  hew  a  casket  and  lay 
the  withered  body  away  in  the  low 
prairie  hills  without  even  a  parson's 
prayer,  —  stern  discipline  of  isolation. 
So  deep  did  this  enforced  neglect  eat 
into  his  boyish  soul  that  he  indited  his 
first  letter  to  the  Reverend  David 
Elkins,  at  Little  Mound,  Kentucky, 
who  three  months  later  rode  over  a 
hundred  miles  to  gratify  this  serious 
child's  wish  that  at  least  a  prayer  be 
said  over  his  mother's  grave. 

His  great  tenderness,  in  love  and 
sorrow,  was  again  shown  when  Ann 
Rutledge,  his  first  love,  was  laid  in  the 
grave.  Grieving  till  his  friends  feared 
his  loss  of  reason,  he  was  found  on  a 
dark  and  stormy  night  beside  the  new- 
made  grave  crying,  "  I  cannot  bear  to 
have  the  rain  fall  upon  her.  " 


30          ftbe  ^Lincoln  Centenary 

These  are  but  incidents  in  the  life  of 
a  heart  so  sensitive  to  human  sorrow 
that  it  shook  the  world  with  emotion 
when  it  felt  the  pangs  of  an  over- 
whelming human  wrong.  As  a  flat- 
boatman,  he  saw  for  the  first  time,  in 
New  Orleans,  men,  women,  and  children 
sold  as  chattels  upon  the  auction  block. 
The  strong  indignant  heart  cried: 
"If  ever  I  get  a  chance  to  hit  it,  my 
God,  I'll  hit  it  hard."  Thirty-two 
years  later,  God  used  that  conscience, 
and  by  a  single  stroke  of  the  pen  the 
name  of  Abraham  Lincoln  was  written 
into  the  pages  of  history,  where  it  will 
be  read  as  long  as  men  shall  read.  He 
amended  the  old  commandment  to 
read:  "Neither  shalt  thou  steal  the 
product  of  labor,  nor  shalt  thou  steal 
Labor  itself." 

The  strong,  sensitive  soul  that  struck 


Ube  ^Lincoln  Centenary         31 

the  manacles  from  four  million  limbs 
was  also  susceptible  to  little  tender- 
nesses. It  was  this  man,  who,  when  his 
brow  was  furrowed  with  the  anxiety  of 
battle,  restored  a  fallen  bird  to  its  nest. 
It  was  this  man  who,  when  weighted 
with  the  charge  of  a  great  army,  car- 
ried a  motherless  kitten  to  the  cook's 
tent  and  gave  directions  for  its  care. 
It  was  this  man  who,  when  riding  on 
the  court  circuit  over  a  muddy  Illinois 
road,  got  off  his  horse  in  a  heavy  storm, 
and  soiled  his  boots  and  clothing  in 
the  deep  mire  to  release  a  poor  pig  that 
had  painfully  entangled  itself  in  a  fence, 
and  who,  when  bantered  by  his  com- 
panions for  his  tender  consideration  of 
the  animal  replied:  "  I  could  not  stand 
the  look  of  that  pig's  eye  as  we  rode 
by.  It  seemed  to  say  to  me:  'There 
goes  my  last  chance." 


32          Ube  ^Lincoln  Centenary 

It  was  this  man  who,  as  President  of 
the  United  States,  without  the  know- 
ledge of  his  Secretary  of  State,  wrote 
in  his  simple  direct  way  a  letter  to  the 
Queen  of  England,  appealing  to  her 
womanhood  to  assure  him  that  his  ef- 
forts as  a  man  to  thwart  the  spread 
of  human  slavery  should  not  be  in- 
jured and  weighted  by  England's  en- 
mity,— an  appeal  not  made  in  vain, 
for  her  answer  assured  him  that  the 
cause  of  slavery  should  have  neither 
her  aid  nor  her  influence,  and  that 
his  government  under  his  guidance 
need  never  have  fear  of  her  people 
so  long  as  she  was  Queen.  Thus  did 
his  simple  and  direct  sincerity  win 
a  triumph  where  all  the  adroitness  of 
diplomacy  had  failed. 

It  was  this  man  who,  in  early  life, 
as  attorney  for  a  poor  feeble-minded 


Ube  ^Lincoln  Centenary         33 

girl,  adjusted  her  little  estate  and  then 
told  his  partner  to  take  such  fee  as  he 
felt  was  fair  and  to  let  his  own  share 
in  the  fee  revert  to  the  orphan,  for 
she  was  helpless  and  needed  all  she 
had.  He  was  a  lawyer  who  dignified 
his  profession  by  making  love  his  law. 
He  sanctified  the  court  room.  He 
plead  for  justice,  not  for  advantage. 
He  sought  truth,  not  judgment.  It 
was  this  man  who  declared:  "I  have 
never  turned  one  inch  out  of  my  course 
to  gain  favor,"  and  again  who  said: 
"  I  want  it  ever  said  of  me  that  I  ever 
plucked  a  thistle  and  planted  a  flower 
wherever  a  flower  would  grow." 

This  great  plain  man  was  intensely 
human.  His  leave-taking  of  his  own 
people  before  going  to  Washington  to  be 
inaugurated  as  President  of  the  United 
States  to  establish  freedom  and  to  con- 


34          TTbe  ^Lincoln  Centenary 

serve  democracy,  will  have  its  place 
among  the  world's  noble  utterances. 
How  he  went  to  Coles  County  to  see 
that  his  father's  grave  was  properly 
marked  and  tended ;  how  he  bade  fare- 
well to  his  foster-mother,  who  broke 
down  in  fear  that  his  enemies  would 
kill  him;  how  on  his  way  to  his  office 
he  was  met  by  Anna  Armstrong,  who 
had  waited  to  take  his  hand  a  last 
time  because  he  had  saved  her  son 
in  court,  and  who  sobbed  "  I  'm  afraid 
those  bad  men  will  kill  you" ;  and  how 
when  he  had  his  trunks  packed  and 
went  to  his  old  law  office  he  found  his 
old  partner,  Billy  Herndon,  waiting 
for  him.  "Billy,"  he  said,  "over 
sixteen  years  together,  and  we  have 
not  had  a  cross  word  during  all  that 
time,  have  we?" 
"Not  one." 


Ube  ^Lincoln  Centenary         35 

"Don't  take  the  sign  down,  Billy, 
let  it  swing  that  our  clients  may  under- 
stand that  the  election  of  a  President 
makes  no  changes  in  the  firm  of  Lincoln 
and  Herndon.  If  I  live  I  am  coming 
back  and  then  we  will  go  right  on 
practising  law  as  if  nothing  had  ever 
happened."  Then  the  two  together 
went  down  the  stairs  and  across  the 
town  to  the  railroad  station,  where  his 
townsmen  had  gathered  to  hear  his 
farewell,  which  for  masterly  simplicity 
will  rank  second  only  to  the  Gettysburg 
address. 

As  President  of  the  United  States, 
he  was  confronted  with  the  intricate 
and  complex  problems  growing  out  of 
the  holiest  war  that  was  ever  fought, 
and  he  became  the  commander-in-chief 
of  the  most  intelligent  and  the  most 
moral  army  ever  mustered  into  service. 


36          Ube  ^Lincoln  Centenary 

In  this  great  crisis  he  became,  all  in 
all  the  sincerest  statesman  the  world 
has  ever  known ;  so  sincere  that  even 
his  enemies  came  to  love  him  as  he 
loved  them,  and  when  the  sad  act  of  a 
madman  took  his  life  at  the  hour  of 
his  triumph,  and  perhaps  at  the  hour 
of  his  greatest  need,  both  General 
Robert  E.  Lee  and  Mr.  Jefferson  Davis 
declared  that  the  truest  friend  of  the 
South  had  passed  away. 

As  a  leader  he  was  militant,  but  so 
much  of  a  gentleman  that  he  knew  not 
how  to  be  insolent.  As  commander- 
in-chief  of  the  army,  he  never  directed 
his  officers  in  the  terms  of  a  command, 
but  rather  in  the  terms  of  a  suggestion. 
As  conqueror  of  a  great  army,  he  entered 
the  fallen  capital  city  without  pomp 
or  ostentation,  and,  unattended,  sought 
the  home  of  a  former  friend  to  inquire 


Ube  Xtncoln  Centenary         37 

after  the  welfare  of  the  wife  and  baby 
boy. 

One  of  his  biographers,  who  for  a 
time  resided  with  him  in  the  White 
House,  says:  "  It  will  be  a  permanent 
source  of  regret  to  the  American  people 
and  a  lasting  loss  to  history  that  there 
was  not  a  special  secretary  appointed 
to  make  note  of  and  to  write  out  the 
history  of  the  various  pardons,  pleas 
for  mercy  and  ameliorating  clemency 
which  were  attended  to  by  President 
Lincoln . ' '  Lincoln  always  thought  for- 
giveness and  compassion  would  do  a 
deserting  soldier  more  good  than  cold 
lead.  Shortly  before  his  martyrdom 
he  said:  "Now  we  are  so  near  the 
end,  I  feel  like  beginning  another 
batch  of  pardons."  To  those  who 
urged  vengeance  upon  the  leaders  of  a 
mistaken  cause  he  said:  "We  must 


38          Ube  ^Lincoln  Centenary 

extinguish  our  resentment  if  we  are  to 
have  harmony  and  peace."  Lincoln 
had  a  maternal  heart.  Forgiveness  was 
his  passion, — justice  was  his  reason. 

The  Puritans  took  liberty,  but  gave 
none  of  it.  Lincoln,  in  whose  veins 
flowed  Puritanic  blood,  ripened  that 
passion  for  freedom  into  a  religion, 
which  he  himself  declared  held  as  its 
only  creed  the  Golden  Rule.  In 
his  life  Democracy  flowered.  He  be- 
lieved in  men.  He  loved  mankind. 
The  little  farm  in  the  wilderness  which 
gave  America  its  savior  will  rank  with 
Mount  Vernon  as  a  nation's  holy  shrine. 
It  will  inspire  political  honor,  and 
rebuke  snobbishness,  greed,  and  hy- 
pocrisy, for  Abraham  Lincoln  is  a 
power  in  America  to-day.  He  will 
be  the  prophet  of  all  the  world  to- 
morrow. He  will  continue  to  live 


Ube  ^Lincoln  Centenary         39 

and  to  rebuke  the  pampered  product 
of  luxury  and  the  sordid  conscience 
of  selfishness  that  cannot  justify  its 
ballot  with  argument.  He  is  not  merely 
the  great  man  of  a  great  moment  of 
American  history,  and  Secretary  Stan- 
ton  spoke  the  abiding  truth  when, 
laying  the  lifeless  head  upon  the  pillow 
he  said,  "  Now  he  belongs  to  the  ages." 


Representative    Utter- 
ances   of  Abraham 
Lincoln 


Farewell    Address    at    Spring- 
field, Illinois 

/ 

FEBRUARY   II,   1 86 1 

MY  FRIENDS:  One  who  has  never 
been  placed  in  a  like  position  cannot 
understand  my  feelings  at  this  hour, 
nor  the  oppressive  sadness  I  feel  at  this 
parting.  For  more  than  twenty-five 
years,  I  have  lived  among  you,  and 
during  all  that  time  I  have  received 
nothing  but  kindness  at  your  hands. 
Here,  the  most  cherished  ties  of  earth 
were  assumed.  Here,  my  children  were 
born,  and  here  one  of  them  lies  buried. 
To  you,  my  friends,  I  owe  all  that  I 
have — all  that  I  am.  All  the  strange 

43 


44  ^farewell  Hfcfcress 

checkered  past  seems  to  crowd  upon 
my  mind.  To-day  I  leave  you.  I  go 
to  assume  a  task  more  difficult  than 
that  which  devolved  upon  General 
Washington.  Unless  the  great  God 
who  assisted  him  shall  be  with  and 
aid  me  I  cannot  prevail;  but  if  the 
same  almighty  arm  that  directed  and 
protected  him  shall  guide  and  support 
me  I  shall  not  fail;  I  shall  succeed. 
Let  us  pray  that  the  God  of  our  fathers 
may  not  forsake  us  now.  To  Him  I 
commend  you  all.  Permit  me  to  ask 
that  with  equal  sincerity  and  faith 
you  will  all  invoke  His  wisdom  and 
goodness  for  me. 

With  these  words  I  must  leave  you; 
for  how  long  I  know  not.  Friends,  one 
and  all,  I  must  now  wish  you  an 
affectionate  farewell. 


Emancipation    Proclamation 


I,  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN,  President 
of  the  United  States  of  America,  and 
Commander-in-Chief  of  the  Army  and 
Navy  thereof,  do  hereby  proclaim  and 
declare  that  hereafter,  as  heretofore, 
the  war  will  be  prosecuted  for  the 
object  of  practically  restoring  the  con- 
stitutional relation  between  the  United 
States  and  each  of  the  States,  and  the 
people  thereof,  in  which  States  that 
relation  is  or  may  be  suspended  or 
disturbed. 

That  it  is  my  purpose,  upon  the 
next  meeting  of  Congress,  to  again 

45 


46       Emancipation  proclamation 

recommend  the  adoption  of  a  practical 
measure  tendering  pecuniary  aid  to  the 
free  acceptance  or  rejection  of  all  slave 
States,  so  called,  the  people  whereof 
may  not  then  be  in  rebellion  against 
the  United  States,  and  which  States 
may  then  have  voluntarily  adopted,  or 
thereafter  may  voluntarily  adopt,  im- 
mediate or  gradual  abolishment  of 
slavery  within  their  respective  limits; 
and  that  the  effort  to  colonize  persons 
of  African  descent  with  their  consent 
upon  this  continent  or  elsewhere,  with 
the  previously  obtained  consent  of  the 
Governments  existing  there,  will  be 
continued. 

That  on  the  first  day  of  January, 
in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand 
eight  hundred  and  sixty-three,  all 
persons  held  as  slaves  within  any  State, 
or  designated  part  of  a  State,  the 


Emancipation  proclamation      47 

people  whereof  shall  then  be  in  rebellion 
against  the  United  States,  shall  be 
then,  thenceforward  and  forever  free; 
and  the  executive  government  of  the 
United  States,  including  the  military 
and  naval  authority  thereof  will  recog- 
nize and  maintain  the  freedom  of  such 
persons,  and  will  do  no  act  or  acts  to 
repress  such  persons,  or  any  of  them, 
in  any  efforts  they  may  make  for  their 
actual  freedom. 

That  the  Executive  will,  on  the  first 
day  of  January  aforesaid,  by  proclama- 
tion, designate  the  States  and  parts  of 
States,  if  any,  in  which  the  people 
thereof  respectively  shall  then  be  in 
rebellion  against  the  United  States; 
and  the  fact  that  any  State,  or  the 
people  thereof,  shall  on  that  day  be, 
in  good  faith,  represented  in  the  Con- 
gress of  the  United  States  by  members 


48      Emancipation  proclamation 

chosen  thereto  at  elections  wherein  a 
majority  of  the  qualified  voters  of 
such  State  shall  have  participated, 
shall,  in  the  absence  of  strong  counter- 
vailing testimony,  be  deemed  con- 
clusive evidence  that  such  State,  and 
the  people  thereof,  are  not  in  rebellion 
against  the  United  States. 

That  attention  is  hereby  called  to 
an  act  of  Congress  entitled  "An  act 
to  make  an  additional  article  of  war," 
approved  March  13,  1862,  and  which 
act  is  in  the  words  and  figure  following : 

Be  it  enacted  by  the  Senate  and  House 
of  Representatives  of  the  United  States  of 
America  in  Congress  assembled,  that  here- 
after the  following  shall  be  promulgated  as 
an  additional  article  of  war,  for  the  govern- 
ment of  the  army  of  the  United  States,  and 
shall  be  obeyed  and  observed  as  such: 

ART. — All  officers  or  persons  in  the  mili- 
tary or  naval  service  of  the  United  States 
are  prohibited  from  employing  any  of  the 


Emancipation  proclamation      49 

forces  under  their  respective  commands  for 
the  purpose  of  returning  fugitives  from 
service  or  labor  who  may  have  escaped  from 
any  persons  to  whom  such  service  or  labor  is 
claimed  to  be  due,  and  any  officer  who  shall 
be  found  guilty  by  a  court-martial  of  violat- 
ing this  article  shall  be  dismissed  from  service. 
SEC.  2. — And  be  it  further  enacted,  that 
this  act  shall  take  effect  from  and  after  its 
passage. 

Also  to  the  ninth  and  tenth  sections 
of  an  act  entitled  "An  act  to  suppress 
insurrection,  to  punish  treason  and 
rebellion,  to  seize  and  confiscate  prop- 
erty of  rebels,  and  for  other  purposes," 
approved  July  17,  1862,  and  which 
sections  are  in  the  words  and  figures 
following : 

SEC.  9. — And  be  it  further  enacted,  That 
all  slaves  of  persons  who  shall  hereafter  be 
engaged  in  rebellion  against  the  Government 
of  the  United  States,  or  who  shall  in  any 
way  give  aid  or  comfort  thereto,  escaping 
from  such  persons  and  taking  refuge  within 


50      Emancipation  proclamation 

the  lines  of  the  army ;  and  all  slaves  captured 
from  such  persons  or  deserted  by  them,  and 
coming  under  the  control  of  the  Government 
of  the  United  States;  and  all  slaves  of  such 
persons  found  on  [or]  being  within  any  place 
occupied  by  rebel  forces  and  afterwards 
occupied  by  the  forces  of  the  United  States, 
shall  be  deemed  captives  of  war,  and  shall 
be  forever  free  of  their  servitude,  and  not 
again  held  as  slaves. 

SEC.  10. — And  be  it  further  enacted,  That 
no  slave  escaping  into  any  State,  Territory, 
or  the  District  of  Columbia,  from  any  other 
State,  shall  be  delivered  up,  or  in  any  way 
impeded  or  hindered  of  his  liberty,  except 
for  crime,  or  some  offence  against  the  laws, 
unless  the  person  claiming  said  fugitive  shall 
first  make  oath  that  the  person  to  whom  the 
labor  or  service  of  such  fugitive  is  alleged  to 
be  due  is  his  lawful  owner  and  has  not  borne 
arms  against  the  United  States  in  the  present 
rebellion,  nor  in  any  way  given  aid  and 
comfort  thereto;  and  no  person  engaged  in 
the  military  or  naval  service  of  the  United 
States  shall,  under  any  pretence  whatever, 
assume  to  decide  on  the  validity  of  the  claim 
of  any  person  to  the  service  or  labor  of  any 
other  person,  or  surrender  up  any  such  person 


Emancipation  proclamation       51 

to  the  claimant,  on  pain  of  being   dismissed 
from  the  service. 

And  I  do  hereby  enjoin  upon  and 
order  all  persons  engaged  in  the  mili- 
tary and  naval  service  of  the  United 
States  to  observe,  obey,  and  enforce, 
within  their  respective  spheres  of 
service,  the  act  and  sections  above 
recited. 

And  the  Executive  will  in  due  time 
recommend  that  all  citizens  of  the 
United  States  who  shall  have  remained 
loyal  thereto  throughout  the  rebellion 
shall  (upon  the  restoration  of  the  con- 
stitutional relation  between  the  United 
States  and  their  respective  States  and 
people,  if  that  relation  shall  have  been 
suspended  or  disturbed)  be  compen- 
sated for  all  losses  by  acts  of  the  United 
States,  including  the  loss  of  slaves. 

In  witness  whereof  I  have  hereunto 


52      ^Emancipation  proclamation 

set  my  hand  and  caused  the  seal  of  the 
United  States  to  be  affixed. 

Done  at  the  city  of  Washington  this 
twenty-second  day  of  September,  in 
the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand 
eight  hundred  and  sixty-two,  and  of 
the  independence  of  the  United  States 
the  eighty-seventh. 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

By  the  President: 
WILLIAM  H.  SEWARD, 
Secretary  of  State. 


Letter  to  Horace  Greeley 

on  the  Policy  of  the 

Administration 

AUGUST  22,  1862 

Hon.  HORACE  GREELEY. 

DEAR  SIR  : — I  have  just  read  yours  of 
the  nineteenth,  addressed  to  myself 
through  the  New  York  Tribune. 

If  there  be  in  it  any  statements  or 
assumptions  of  facts  which  I  may 
know  to  be  erroneous,  I  do  not  now 
and  here  controvert  them. 

If  there  be  any  inferences  which  I 
may  believe  to  be  falsely  drawn,  I  do 
not  now  and  here  argue  against  them. 

If  there  be  perceptible  in  it  an  im- 

53 


54        Xetter  to  Tborace 


patient  and  dictatorial  tone,  I  waive 
it  in  deference  to  an  old  friend  whose 
heart  I  have  always  supposed  to  be 
right. 

As  to  the  policy  I  "seem  to  be  pur- 
suing" as  you  say,  I  have  not  meant 
to  leave  any  one  in  doubt.  I  would 
save  the  Union.  I  would  save  it  in  the 
shortest  way  under  the  Constitution. 

The  sooner  the  national  authority 
can  be  restored,  the  nearer  the  Union 
will  be,  "  the  Union  as  it  was." 

If  there  be  those  who  would  not  save 
the  Union  unless  they  could  at  the 
same  time  save  slavery,  I  do  not  agree 
with  them. 

If  there  be  those  who  would  not  save 
the  Union  unless  they  could  at  the 
same  time  destroy  slavery,  I  do  not 
agree  with  them. 

My  paramount  object  in  this  strug- 


Xetter  to  Iborace  Oreelep        55 

gle  is  to  save  the  Union,  and  is  not 
either  to  save  or  destroy  slavery. 

If  I  could  save  the  Union  without 
freeing  any  slave,  I  would  do  it ;  and  if 
I  could  save  it  by  freeing  all  the  slaves, 
I  would  do  it;  and  if  I  could  do  it  by 
freeing  some  and  leaving  others  alone, 
I  would  also  do  that. 

What  I  do  about  slavery  and  the 
colored  race,  I  do  because  I  believe  it 
helps  to  save  this  Union;  and  what  I 
forbear,  I  forbear  because  I  do  not 
believe  it  would  help  to  save  the 
Union. 

I  shall  do  less  whenever  I  shall  be- 
lieve what  I  am  doing  hurts  the  cause, 
and  I  shall  do  more  whenever  I  shall 
believe  in  doing  more  will  help  the 
cause. 

I  shall  try  to  correct  errors  when 
shown  to  be  errors;  and  I  shall  adopt 


56       Xetter  to  t>orace  (Breeles 

new  views  so  fast  as  they  shall  appear 
to  be  true  views. 

I  have  here  stated  my  purpose 
according  to  my  view  of  official  duty, 
and  I  intend  no  modification  of  my  oft- 
expressed  personal  wish  that  all  men, 
everywhere,  could  be  free. 
Yours, 

A.  LINCOLN. 


Letter   to  General  J.  Hooker 

on  his  Appointment  to  the 

Command  of  the  Army 

of  the  Potomac 

JANUARY  26,   1863 

EXECUTIVE  MANSION,  WASHINGTON,  D.  C., 
January  26,  1863. 

Major-General  HOOKER. 

GENERAL: — I  have  placed  you  at 
the  head  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac. 
Of  course  I  have  done  this  upon  what 
appear  to  me  to  be  sufficient  reasons, 
and  yet  I  think  it  best  for  you  to  know 
that  there  are  some  things  in  regard 
to  which  I  am  not  quite  satisfied  with 
you.  I  believe  you  to  be  a  brave 


57 


58      Xetter  to  General  3.  Iboofeer 

and  skilful  soldier,  which  of  course  I 
like.  I  also  believe  you  do  not  mix 
politics  with  your  profession,  in  which 
you  are  right.  You  have  confidence 
in  yourself,  which  is  a  valuable  if  not 
an  indispensable  quality.  You  are 
ambitious,  which,  within  reasonable 
bounds,  does  good  rather  than  harm; 
but  I  think  that  during  General  Burn- 
side's  command  of  the  army  you  have 
taken  counsel  of  your  ambition  and 
thwarted  him  as  much  as  you  could,  in 
which  you  did  a  great  wrong  to  the 
country  and  to  a  most  meritorious  and 
honorable  brother  officer.  I  have  heard, 
in  such  a  way  as  to  believe  it,  of  your 
recently  saying  that  both  the  army 
and  the  government  needed  a  dictator. 
Of  course  it  was  not  for  this,  but  in 
spite  of  it,  that  I  have  given  you  the 
command.  Only  those  generals  who 


Xetter  to  Oeneral  3.  t>oofeer      59 

gain  successes  can  set  up  dictators. 
What  I  now  ask  of  you  is  military 
success,  and  I  will  risk  the  dictatorship. 
The  government  will  support  you  to  the 
utmost  of  its  ability,  which  is  neither 
more  nor  less  than  it  has  done  and  will 
do  for  all  commanders.  I  much  fear 
that  the  spirit  that  you  have  aided  to 
infuse  into  the  army,  of  criticising  their 
commander  and  withholding  confidence 
from  him,  will  now  turn  upon  you.  I 
shall  assist  you  as  far  as  I  can  to  put 
it  down.  Neither  you  nor  Napoleon,  if 
he  were  alive  again,  could  get  any  good 
out  of  an  army  while  such  a  spirit  pre- 
vails in  it.  And  now  beware  of  rash- 
ness. Beware  of  rashness,  but  with 
energy  and  sleepless  vigilance  go  for- 
ward and  give  us  victories. 

Yours  very  truly, 

A.  LINCOLN. 


Address  at  Gettysburg 

NOVEMBER  19,  1863 

FOURSCORE  and  seven  years  ago 
our  fathers  brought  forth  on  this 
continent  a  new  nation,  conceived  in 
Liberty,  and  dedicated  to  the  propo- 
sition that  all  men  are  created  equal. 

Now,  we  are  engaged  in  a  great  civil 
war,  testing  whether  that  nation,  or 
any  nation  so  conceived  and  so  dedi- 
cated, can  long  endure.  We  are  met 
on  a  great  battle-field  of  that  war.  We 
have  come  to  dedicate  a  portion  of  that 
field,  as  a  final  resting-place  for  those 
who  here  gave  their  lives  that  that 

nation   might   live.     It   is   altogether 
60 


Bfcfcress  at  Oettpsbura          61 

fitting  and  proper  that  we  should  do 
this. 

But,  in  a  larger  sense,  we  cannot  dedi- 
cate— we  cannot  consecrate — we  cannot 
hallow — this  ground.  The  brave  men, 
living  and  dead,  who  struggled  here, 
have  consecrated  it,  far  above  our  poor 
power  to  add  or  detract.  The  world  will 
little  note,  nor  long  remember,  what  we 
say  here,  but  it  can  never  forget  what 
they  did  here.  It  is  for  us,  the  living, 
rather,  to  be  dedicated  here  to  the  un- 
finished work  which  they  who  fought 
here  have  thus  far  so  nobly  advanced. 
It  is  rather  for  us  to  be  here  dedicated 
to  the  great  task  remaining  before  us— 
that  from  these  honored  dead  we  take 
increased  devotion  to  that  cause  for 
which  they  gave  the  last  full  measure  of 
devotion — that  we  here  highly  resolve 
that  these  dead  shall  not  have  died  in 


62          Hfcfcress  at  Gettysburg 

vain — that  this  nation,  under  God, 
shall  have  a  new  birth  of  freedom — 
and  that  government  of  the  people, 
by  the  people,  for  the  people,  shall 
not  perish  from  the  earth. 


Letter  to  Mrs.  Bixby  on  the 
Death  of  her  Five  Sons 

in  Battle 

NOVEMBER  21,  1864 

EXECUTIVE  MANSION,  WASHINGTON, 
November  21,  1864. 

Mrs.  BIXBY,  Boston,  Mass. 

DEAR  MADAM:  I  have  been  shown 
in  the  files  of  the  War  Department  a 
statement  of  the  Adjutant-General  of 
Massachusetts  that  you  are  the  mother 
of  five  sons  who  have  died  gloriously 
on  the  field  of  battle.  I  feel  how  weak 
and  fruitless  must  be  any  words  of 
mine  which  should  attempt  to  beguile 
you  from  the  grief  of  a  loss  so  over- 
whelming. But  I  cannot  refrain  from 
63 


64  Xetter  to  flDrs. 


tendering  to  you  the  consolation  that 
may  be  found  in  the  thanks  of  the 
Republic  they  died  to  save.  I  pray 
that  our  Heavenly  Father  may  assuage 
the  anguish  of  your  bereavement,  and 
leave  you  only  the  cherished  memory 
of  the  loved  and  lost,  and  the  solemn 
pride  that  must  be  yours  to  have 
laid  so  costly  a  sacrifice  upon  the  altar 
of  freedom. 

Yours   very  sincerely   and   respect- 
fully, 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 


Second  Inaugural  Address 

MARCH  4,  1865 

FELLOW-COUNTRYMEN:  At  this  sea- 
son, appearing  to  take  the  oath  of  the 
Presidential  office,  there  is  less  occasion 
for  an  extended  address  than  there  was 
at  the  first.  Then,  a  statement  some- 
what in  detail  of  a  course  to  be  pursued 
seemed  very  fitting  and  proper.  Now, 
at  the  expiration  of  four  years,  during 
which  public  declarations  have  been 
constantly  called  forth  on  every  point 
and  phase  of  the  great  contest  which 
still  absorbs  the  attention  and  en- 
grosses the  energies  of  the  nation,  little 
that  is  new  could  be  presented.  The 


66       Second  Inaugural  Bfcfcress 

progress  of  our  arms,  upon  which  all 
else  chiefly  depends,  is  as  well  known 
to  the  public  as  to  myself,  and  it  is, 
I  trust,  reasonably  satisfactory  and 
encouraging  to  all.  With  high  hope 
for  the  future,  no  prediction  in  regard 
to  it  is  ventured. 

On  the  occasion  corresponding  to 
this  four  years  ago  all  thoughts  were 
anxiously  directed  to  an  impending 
civil  war.  All  dreaded  it,  all  sought 
to  avoid  it.  While  the  inaugural  ad- 
dress was  being  delivered  from  this 
place,  devoted  altogether  to  saving  the 
Union  without  war,  insurgent  agents 
were  in  the  city,  seeking  to  destroy  it 
without  war — seeking  to  dissolve  the 
Union,  and  divide  the  effects  by  nego- 
tiation. Both  parties  deprecated  war, 
but  one  of  them  would  make  war  rather 
than  let  the  nation  survive,  and  the 


Second  irnaugural  Hfcfcress       67 

other  would  accept  war  rather  than  let 
it  perish,  and  the  war  came. 

One  eighth  of  the  whole  population 
was  colored  slaves,  not  distributed  gen- 
erally over  the  Union,  but  localized  in 
the  southern  part  of  it.  These  slaves 
constituted  a  peculiar  and  powerful  in- 
terest. All  knew  that  this  interest  was 
somehow  the  cause  of  the  war.  To 
strengthen,  perpetuate,  and  extend 
this  interest  was  the  object  for  which 
the  insurgents  would  rend  the  Union 
even  by  war,  while  the  Government 
claimed  no  right  to  do  more  than  to 
restrict  the  territorial  enlargement  of 
it.  Neither  party  expected  for  the  war 
the  magnitude  or  the  duration  which 
it  has  already  attained.  Neither  an- 
ticipated that  the  cause  of  the  conflict 
might  cease  with  or  even  before  the 
conflict  itself  should  cease.  Each 


68        Second  flnaugural  Hfcfcress 

looked  for  an  easier  triumph,  and  a 
result  less  fundamental  and  astounding. 
Both  read  the  same  Bible,  and  pray 
to  the  same  God,  and  each  invokes  His 
aid  against  the  other.  It  may  seem 
strange  that  any  men  should  dare  to 
ask  a  just  God's  assistance  in  wringing 
their  bread  from  the  sweat  of  other 
men's  faces.  But  let  us  judge  not, 
that  we  be  not  judged.  The  prayers 
of  both  could  not  be  answered.  That 
of  neither  has  been  answered  fully. 
The  Almighty  has  His  own  purposes. 
"Woe  unto  the  world  because  of 
offences;  for  it  must  needs  be  that 
offences  come,  but  woe  to  that  man 
by  whom  the  offence  cometh!"  If 
we  shall  suppose  that  American  slavery 
is  one  of  these  offences  which,  in  the 
providence  of  God,  must  needs  come, 
but  which,  having  continued  through 


Second  flnaugural  H&fcress       69 

His  appointed  time,  He  now  wills  to 
remove,  and  that  He  gives  to  both 
North  and  South  this  terrible  war  as 
the  woe  due  to  those  by  whom  the 
offence  came,  shall  we  discern  therein 
any  departure  from  those  divine  attri- 
butes which  the  believers  in  a  living 
God  always  ascribe  to  Him?  Fondly 
do  we  hope,  fervently  do  we  pray,  that 
this  mighty  scourge  of  war  may 
speedily  pass  away.  Yet,  if  God  wills 
that  it  continue  until  all  the  wealth 
piled  by  the  bondsman's  two  hundred 
and  fifty  years  of  unrequited  toil  shall 
be  sunk,  and  until  every  drop  of  blood 
drawn  with  the  lash  shall  be  paid  by 
another  drop  of  blood  drawn  by  the 
sword,  as  was  said  three  thousand 
years  ago,  so  still  it  must  be  said,  that 
"the  judgments  of  the  Lord  are  true 
and  righteous  altogether." 


70      Seconfc  Inaugural 


With  malice  toward  none,  with 
charity  for  all,  with  firmness  in  the 
right  as  God  gives  us  to  see  the  right, 
let  us  strive  on  to  finish  the  work  we 
are  in,  to  bind  up  the  nation's  wounds, 
to  care  for  him  who  shall  have  borne 
the  battle,  and  for  his  widow  and  his 
orphans,  to  do  all  which  may  achieve 
and  cherish  a  just  and  a  lasting  peace 
among  ourselves  and  with  all  nations. 


THE    END 


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American  Political  History 

1763-1876 

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New  York  London 


American  Orations 

FROM  THE  COLONIAL  PERIOD 
TO  THE  PRESENT  TIME 


Selected  as  specimens  of  eloquence,  and  with 
special  reference  to  their  value  in  throwing  light 
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Edited,  with  introductions  and  notes,  by  the 
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SERIES  I.  Colonialism — Constitutional  Govern- 
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Free  Trade  and  Protection — Finance  and 
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G.  P.  PUTNAM'S   SONS 

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A   Work  of  Distinction. 

A  Journey  in  the  Seaboard 
Slave  States. 

(1853--1854) 

WITH  REMARKS  ON  THEIR  ECONOMY 

By  FREDERICK.  LAW  OLMSTED 

Author  of  "WALKS  AND  TALKS  WITH  AN 
AMERICAN  FARMER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND,  ETC. 
With  a  Biographical  Sketch  by  Frederick  Law 
Olmsted,  Jr.,  and  with  an  Introduction  by  W.  P. 
Trent. 

Second  Edition.        2  vols.,  with,  portrait.        Octavo. 
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judicial  manner.  It  is  in  no  degree  sensational,  but  presents 
the  facts  as  seen  or  heard  from  credible  witnesses  and  is  in- 
valuable to  the  student  of  the  causes  of  the  Civil  War. 

"The  reader  who  cares  to  understand  the  American  Civil 
War  should  read  the  narrative  by  Frederick  Law  Olmsted 
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the  South  on  the  eve  of  its  great  catastrophe  as  is  given  by 
Arthur  Young  of  France  on  the  eve  of  its  Revolution." — 
Morlrfs  Life  of  Gladstone. 

Q.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 

NEW  YORK  LONDON 


Gettysburg  and  Lincoln 

The  Battle,  the  Cemetery,  and 
the  National  Park 

By  Henry  Sweetser  Burrage 

Brevet  Major  U.  5.  Vols. 

With  37  Full-page  Illustrations  and  3  Battle  Plans, 
8vo.    $1.50  net.    By  mail,  $1.63. 

Gettysburg  will  always  be  famous  as  one  of  the  great  battle- 
fields of  the  world,  and  as  the  place  where  was  fought  the 
decisive  battle  of  the  Civil  War.  The  victory  there  won  for  the 
Union  Cause  was  commemorated  by  the  establishing  of  the 
beautiful  National  Park  in  which  is  the  Cemetery  that  contains 
the  graves  and  monuments  of  the  soldiers  who  then  gave  their 
lives  for  their  country — a  spot  that  will  always  be  the  goal  of 
patriotic  pilgrims.  The  consecration  of  the  Cemetery  was  the 
occasion  of  Lincoln's  famous  Address,  which  ranks  among  the 
great  historic  speeches  of  the  world,  and  which  is,  in  the  simple 
grandeur  and  nobility  of  its  eloquence,  so  essentially  characteristic 
of  the  man.  Major  Burrage,  himself  a  War  veteran,  brings  together 
in  this  volume,  which  is  illustrated,  and  equipped  with  tactical 
maps,  the  records  of  the  Battle,  the  Park,  the  Cemetery,  and  the 
Lincoln  Address. 


G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 

New  York  London 


